The healthcare technology field rapidly evolved in 2020 due to the pandemic as health systems pivoted toward more virtual care and realized the importance of data analytics.
Allscripts responded to the pandemic in many ways, such as creating and supporting a specialized telehealth plan to implement virtual visits between providers and payers. The company's dbMotion platform provided public health analytics globally for organizations to better understand trends for COVID-19 patients.
Allscripts also supported software implementations and upgrades virtually so organizations could stay on track during the pandemic. In the coming months, the company will focus on its evolving business model.
"Over the next two years, we expect our business model to be increasingly fueled by subscription revenue, as many of our customers take advantage of our move to the cloud and enjoy the benefits of a consumption-based pricing model," said Paul Black, CEO of Allscripts. "Importantly, this model will expand our ability to offer software apps and services which are targeted to specific needs of providers and consumers and are cost effective and easy to adopt. This will drive a change in the business model of our customers too, enabling them to easily measure return on investment from their health IT supplier."
Mr. Black sees the company's cloud solution, mobile options, consumer and interoperability capabilities and telehealth offerings as becoming more foundational tools in the future, as healthcare is increasingly delivered virtually. The EHR will evolve to meet these new provider requirements.
"Collaborating with Microsoft, the leader in the public cloud sector, Allscripts will begin to deliver big tech capabilities like voice and [artificial intelligence], increased integration with Microsoft productivity tools, and ease of connection with Internet of Things data and devices," said Mr. Black. "Therefore, the next iteration of the EHR will be highly usable, connected to its surrounding community — affiliates, social services, patients and devices — mobile, and far more self-service for clinicians, reducing the IT costs and increasing the medical benefits."
Microsoft and Allscripts extended their long-standing partnership in July to make Microsoft the cloud provider for Allscripts' Sunrise EHR. The partnership also opened up future co-innovation opportunities on scalable healthcare technology.
"Our partnership with Microsoft has been recognized for giving us an advantage over the competition in innovation and shifting to the cloud," said Mr. Black. "Microsoft investments in cybersecurity are tremendous, their focus in the healthcare segment is significant, and they are already exploring new horizons, including digital twins and advanced artificial intelligence with us."
Mr. Black said the company is open to partnerships with all technology suppliers.
"Big tech brings new capabilities to healthcare IT, and we welcome the ability to integrate these features into our world-class EHRs," he said. "Equally, we applaud retail firms increasing their health maintenance offerings to patients providing healthcare access and convenience to help customers stay well."
One other area Allscripts has been working to address has been clinician burnout as the healthcare delivery system becomes more complex. Physicians now have access to more clinical data and healthcare is evolving into more of a business. Based on its research with clinicians, Allscripts found specific areas of design, enabling the company to simplify the EHR experience, save time per patient and increase documentation accuracy.
"The trends emerging from our research show the desire for a fully connected, mobile EHR, where information is presented in context that is purpose-built for the device—a watch, a tablet, a phone or on the web. In addition, it is able to inherit and leverage the benefits of the device, including location, gestures, messaging and voice," said Mr. Black.